Skip to main content

Chong Wei, Lin Dan win, but three youngsters knock out stars

KUALA LUMPUR: Veterans Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and Lin Dan of China flexed their muscles to reach the quarter-finals of the US$1.2mil South Korea Open in Seoul yesterday.
But three youngsters – Kenichi Tago of Japan and China’s Wang Zhengming and Du Pengyu – seized the limelight when they knocked out three China stars – Chen Long, reigning champion Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai respectively – in the second round.

Tago battled for one hour and 29 minutes to break the resolve of fourth-seeded Chen Long for a 20-22, 23-21, 21-16 win.

Pengyu and world junior champion Zhengming, however, did not face much resistance in their matches. Pengyu ousted Chunlai 21-16, 21-13 and Zhengming overcame Chen Jin 21-11, 21-14.
This has led to speculation that Chunlai and Chen Jin pulled their punches to allow their juniors to go through.
In today’s quarter-finals, Pengyu will face Tago while Zhengming has a tricky match against Chong Wei.
Yesterday, Chong Wei ripped South Korean Park Sung-hwan apart for a 21-14, 21-9 win in just 35 minutes.

National coach Teh Seu Bock was happy with the transformation in Chong Wei’s game.
Just a day earlier, the Malaysian was slow off the mark before finally prevailing against Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen.

“I am happy with his condition here. He is a bit tired as he is coming into his third tournament this month. But I am happy that he is able to showcase the qualities in his game,” said Seu Bock.


The coach, however, was sceptical with the outcome of match between Zhengming and Chen Jin, saying: “I think Chen Jin is not prepared to face Chong Wei yet.”

The other quarter-final matches today will see Lin Dan facing Indonesian Taufik Hidayat and Denmark’s Peter-Gade Chris­tensen is up against a resurgent Simon Santoso of Indonesia.

So far, Lin Dan has not shown any signs of the back injury that resulted in him conceding a walkover in the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Open last week.

Yesterday, he took only 27 minutes to record a 21-9, 21-12 win over Marc Zwiebler of Germany.
Meanwhile, it was all over for Malaysia’s Wong Mew Choo when she ran out of steam against top seed Wang Xin, losing 16-21, 9-21 in the women’s singles second round.

Second round results
MEN
Singles: Lee Chong Wei (Mas) bt Park Sung-hwan (Kor) 21-14, 21-9; Wang Zhengming (Chn) bt Chen Jin (Chn) 21-11, 21-14; Kenichi Tago (Jpn) bt Chen Long (Chn) 20-22, 23-21, 21-16; Peter-Gade Christensen (Den) bt P. Kashyap (Ind) 21-16, 21-13; Taufik Hidayat (Ina) bt Wong Wing Ki (Hkg) 19-21, 21-18, 21-17; Lin Dan (Chn) bt Marc Zwiebler (Ger) 21-9, 21-12; Du Pengyu (Chn) bt Bao Chunlai (Chn) 21-16, 21-13; Simon Santoso (Ina) bt Rajiv Ouseph (Eng) 21-19, 21-15.
Doubles: Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen (Den) bt Naoki Kawamae-Shoji Sato (Jpn) 21-10, 21-10; Fang Chieh-min-Lee Sheng-mu (Tpe) bt Liu Xiaolong-Qiu Zihan (Chn) 21-18, 19-21, 21-11; Kim Ki-jung-Kim Sa-rang (Kor) bt Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan (Ina) 21-18, 21-18; Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Ong Soon Hock (Mas) bt Alven Yulianto-Hendra Gunawan (Ina) 21-18, 21-12; Ko Sung-hyun-Yoo Yeon-seong (Kor) bt Robert Blair-Flandi Limpele (Sco-Ina) 18-21, 21-15, 21-16; Mads Conrad-Petersen-Jonas Rasmussen (Den) bt Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng (Chn) 21-18, 17-21, 21-13; Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae (Kor) bt Chris Adcock-Andrew Ellis (Eng) 21-12, 21-10; Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong (Mas) bt Hong Wei-Shen Ye (Chn) 25-23, 11-21, 21-19.

Matches involving Malaysians in other events
Women’s singles: Wang Xin (Chn) bt Wong Mew Choo 21-16, 21-9.


By RAJES PAUL


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...
11 comments
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more